I. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to solid particulate separation from liquids by vacuum filtering and, more particularly, to a filter leaf cross-flow membrane cleaning jet apparatus used in conjunction with a leaf-type liquid filter machine capable of clarifying and separating an exceptionally large volume of liquid.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of leaf-type filtering apparatuses are known. For example, my U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,519,903 and 4,579,656 disclose a compact apparatus for filtering large volumes of liquid to remove contaminant particles from the liquids. Many of the known leaf-type filter machines have short operating cycles due to the solid particulates collecting on the filter medium, clogging the openings, which results in the rapid build-up of a cake on the filter and correspondingly reduces the amount of filtrate flow. Tremendous amounts of time are consumed in shutting down the filter machines and cleaning the cake from the filters.
This application discloses the construction of a filter leaf cross-flow membrane cleaning jet apparatus, which uses a large portion of the clarified filtrate, which is pumped vertically downward across the face of the filter leaf membrane, to push particulates about the face of the filter leaf downwardly towards a collection tank portion, thereby continuously offering a fresh surface on the filter medium which correspondingly increases the effective operating cycle of the filter machine. Other advantages of this invention include the easy removal of the conduit with the attached filter leaves as a single assembly from the filter tank and provides the capability for separate, independent sets of filters with different filtering characteristics to produce different filtrate streams from within the same tank enclosure. Additionally, the invention provides the capability for backwashing a portion of the filter panels while the remaining portion of filter panels continues to operate. Furthermore, the invention provides for wiping the surface of the filter membrane to further increase the effective operating cycle of the filter machine.